Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich decried efforts in Congress to impeach President Trump a second time as an “enormous danger.”
“What I object to is the idea that the U.S. Congress, whether Democrat or Republican, is going to dictate to the American people who they’re allowed to vote for. This idea that they’re somehow going to make it illegal for Trump to run, that says they think he’s popular that he could win,” Gingrich said on Fox Business’s Mornings with Maria on Wednesday, noting that conviction in the Senate would bar Trump from holding elected office again. “Now, by what right does [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi or any member of Congress dictate to the American people who is allowed to run?”
Gingrich also said Trump has been subject to censorship on social media, and he argued that there is a campaign to silence the president that will “blow up” on the Left. He claimed that Trump, unlike his adversaries, has an electoral mandate by way of the 74 million voters who backed him in his failed bid for reelection.
“I think it’ll blow up on them because I think even the American Civil Liberties Union has come out and said that it’s very troubling to watch these big internet giants trying to strangle the president of the United States,” Gingrich said. “[Facebook founder Mark] Zuckerberg didn’t get any votes. None of these [social media CEOs] got any votes. Donald Trump got 74 million votes. By what right do they, just because they’re rich, have the ability to shut up somebody who has 74 million votes?”
The Georgia Republican recently argued that Pelosi’s push to impeach the president is motivated by a fear that he will initiate a 2024 bid.
“Pelosi fears the American people might pick him if they were allowed to,” he tweeted. “What a formula for expressing Washington’s contempt for the people.”
The Democratic-controlled House unveiled an article of impeachment charging Trump with inciting an insurrection. More than 180 Democrats and at least five Republicans are expected to vote in favor of impeachment. Convicting Trump in the Senate requires a two-thirds vote, or 67 senators.
If the Senate does convict him before Inauguration Day, he will become the first president to be removed from office in U.S. history.
Trump was first impeached by the Democratic-controlled House in December 2019 on two Ukraine-related charges but was acquitted by the GOP-led Senate.